Dr. Kate MacInnes is part of a unique three-generations at the Boston Marathon. Along with Kate, her mom, Laurie MacInnes, ran it four times, and Kate ran it in 2017 while pregnant with her daughter Elise.
Mile 19 of the Boston Marathon is a challenging series of hills that lead up to Heartbreak Hill, and Dr. Kate MacInnes wrote Mile 19 on her arm in honour of her cancer patients.
-by Bill Dunphy
Dr. Kate MacInnes is proof that age is just a number.
Competing in her seventh Boston Marathon on Monday of last week, the 41-year-old mother of two set a Cape Breton female record for the course with a sizzling time of 2:58:34 – the first woman from the island to crack three hours at the famed race.
“It was a lifetime goal for me (to run a marathon under three hours). It was a great day, a bit of a tailwind, and I enjoyed every step,” she said.
A hematologist at Inverness Consolidated Memorial Hospital’s cancer clinic, MacInnes said she had some extra motivation this time around.
“One of my patients, who is having a challenging time, planned on going to Boston to cheer on a friend. Unfortunately, he was unable to go and he asked of me, ‘Think of me, think of me and all the runners who aren’t able to go.’”
Her patient’s birthday was the day before the run, the 19th, and, knowing the course, she wrote “Mile 19″ on her arm.
While Heartbreak Hill, between Mile 20 and 21, is well-known as a difficult part of the course, MacInnes said Mile 19 has three challenging hills leading up to Heartbreak.
“Mile 19 and Heartbreak is actually four of the Newton Hills and it was a poignant moment for me. A lot of us in health care carry our patients in different ways,” she said.
In setting what was a personal best for her, MacInnes maintained a steady pace, averaging 6:49 minutes per mile.
In fact, she barely slowed while tackling those hills, going from 6:51/mile at Mile 20 to 7:06/mile at Mile 21, then resuming her 6:40/mile pace for the remainder of the race.
“I was really excited about that,” she said.
“You know the parts of the race that are going to be your weaknesses, so you prepare for that. Last year I cramped up on Mile 16-17 and every downhill step was misery. I thought if I hold back and preserve my legs and quads, then it truly is all downhill from there.”
A Sydney girl who has made her home in Scotsville with her husband Patrick Gillis and their children, Elise and Freddie, MacInnes trains regularly on Highway 395 and with her Cape Breton Roadrunners friends when she works two days a month at the Cape Breton Regional.
“I do a lot of treadmill in the winter and in the summer I get out early in the morning on 395. I avoid Route 19, but I will do the trail from Kenloch to Mabou, and arrange to be picked up at the end of the line,” she laughed, noting that she does not run back to Kenloch.
“And as we know, training for endurance events is not possible without the support of the entire family.”
MacInnes said she has always been a runner, but breaking a three-hour marathon was not in the cards during her 20s and 30s.
“In my 20s I was at med school and in residency. I was injured in my early 20s but in my mid-20s I had a running coach in Ontario, where I was running the marathon in 3:18:00 at the time. It wasn’t until after I had kids that my times started coming down, running it in 3:03 twice and 3:02:10 at the 2023 Cape Breton Fiddlers Marathon,” she said.
“We often think as we get older that we get slower, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Proper nutrition and staying active can keep a body going.”
MacInnes said Peter Hanna, the “Godfather” of Cape Breton running, said to her once, “I can’t run 26 miles anymore, but I can run one mile 26 times.”
Hanna, who passed away three years ago at the age of 80, ran more than 50 marathons in his life and was the first person to run all legs of the Cabot Trail Relay Race twice.
MacInnes said the Cabot Trail Relay is the next event on her calendar for May 23-24 where she will run one, maybe two, of the 17 stages of the 185-mile course.
MacInnes was greeted with balloons and a turnout by her co-workers upon her return to the ICMH cancer clinic last week.
“We are so proud of Dr. Kate,” said Melissa Beaton, an RN at the cancer clinic.
“She is a hard-working hematologist who goes above and beyond for our cancer patients at ICMH and now she is the fastest female from Cape Breton to run the Boston Marathon.”
Beaton added, “Dr. Kate is the entire package – the kindest person in the world, incredibly smart, musical and athletic. She is amazing.”